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As the number of family offices increases globally so to has the number of international financial centres trying to entice families to their jurisdictions. In this section, CampdenFO has selected out the top 15 destinations for family offices, providing an update on the regulatory developments and what makes them attractive. Chris Owen reports.

Since the global financial crisis struck in 2008, offshore financial centres (OFCs) have come under sustained attack. As the world’s leading economies struggled to balance their books in the face of massive declines in tax revenue, the lowest fruit was seen to be hanging from the offshore tree.

Hedge funds haven’t covered themselves in glory in recent years. Underperformance, fee structures and redemption restrictions have all angered investors – many of them family offices. Chris Owen reports

Last November, Sotheby’s New York was set to auction Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents by the Impressionist master Edgar Degas, carrying an estimated value of $350,000 to $450,000 (€248,000-€318,900). But at the eleventh hour, the small, six-by-eight inch portrait of a laundrywoman with an aching tooth was mysteriously withdrawn from sale.

In the days before air travel and telecommunications shrank the planet, members of wealthy families used to live within close range both of each other and the source of their wealth. It was therefore the residence of the patriarch or other key family members that determined the location of the family office. Today, the opposite holds true.

Antique fakes are almost as old as the antiques themselves. Christopher Owen, who helped expose one of the greatest frauds in the history of the market, tells the tale – and the lessons that buyers should draw from it.

Succession planning is one of the cornerstones to running a successful family business, and without it families risk losing all they have worked so hard to build. Chris Owen asks what families can learn about succession from King Lear to IKEA